(anc. geog.), the capital of the district of that name in Peloponnesus, situated on the Peneus, which ran through it. It was the country of Phædo the philosopher, scholar of Socrates, and friend of Plato; who inscribes with his name the dialogue on the immortality of the soul. Pyrrho also was of this city, at the head of the sect called after him Pyrrhoniæ.

The city of Elis owed its origin to an union of small towns after the Persian war. It was not encompassed immediately with a wall; for it had the care of the temple at Olympia, and its territory was solemnly consecrated to Jupiter. To invade or not protect it was deemed impiety; and armies, if marching through, delivered up their weapons, which, on their quitting it, were restored. Amid warring states the city enjoyed repose, was referred to by strangers, and flourished. Thereupon round about it was called cale or bollow, from the inequalities. The country was reckoned fertile, and particularly fit for the raising of flax. This, which grew nowhere else in Greece, equalled the produce of Judea in fineness, but was not so yellow. Elis was a school, as it were, for Olympia, which was distant 37 miles. The athletic exercises were performed there, before the more solemn trial, in a gymnasium, by which the Peneus ran. The hellanodics or prefects of the games paired the rival combatants by lot, in an area called Pletorium or The Acre. Within the wall grew lofty plane-trees; and in the court, which was called the Xystus, were separate courses marked for the foot-races. A smaller court was called the Quadrangle. The prefects, when chosen, resided for ten months in a building erected for their use, to be instructed in the duties of their office. They attended before sun-rise to preside at the races; and again at noon, the time appointed for the pentathlon or five sports. The horses were trained in the agora or market-place, which was called the Hippodrome. In the gymnastrium were altars and a cenotaph of Achilles. The women, besides other rites, beat their bosoms in honour of this hero, on a fixed day toward sunset. There also was the town-hall, in which extemporary harangues were spoken and compositions recited. It was hung round with bucklers for ornaments. A way led from it to the baths through the Street of Silence; and another to the market-place, which was planned with streets between porticoes of the Doric order adorned with altars and images. Among the temples one had a circular peristyle or colonnade; but the image had been removed and the roof was fallen in the time of Paulianus. The theatre was ancient, as was also a temple of Bacchus, one of the deities principally adored at Elis. Minerva had a temple in the citadel, with an image of ivory and gold made (it was said) by Phidias. At the gate leading to Olympia was the monument of a person, who was buried, as an oracle had commanded, neither within nor without the city. The structures of Elis, Dr Chandler observes, seem to have been raised with materials far less elegant and durable than the produce of the Ionian and Attic quarries. The ruins are of brick, and not considerable, consisting of pieces of ordinary wall, and an octagon building with niches, which, it is supposed, was the temple with a circular peristyle. These stand detached from each other, ranging in a vale southward from the wide bed of the river Peneus; which, by the margin, has several large stones, perhaps relics of the gymnasium. The citadel was on a hill, which has on the top some remnants of wall.